Full Planet, Empty Plates The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

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Description: With food scarcity driven by falling water tables, eroding soils, and rising temperatures, control of arable land and water resources is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food security. In this era of tightening world food supplies,More...

With food scarcity driven by falling water tables, eroding soils, and rising temperatures, control of arable land and water resources is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food security. In this era of tightening world food supplies, the ability to grow food is fast becoming a new form of geopolitical leverage. Food is the new oil, Lester R. Brown writes.What will the geopolitics of food look like in a new era dominated by scarcity and food nationalism? Brown outlines the political implications of land acquisitions by grain-importing countries in Africa and elsewhere as well as the world’s shrinking buffers against poor harvests. With wisdom accumulated over decades of tracking agricultural issues, Brown exposes the increasingly volatile food situation the world is facing.

The son of farmers, Lester Brown was born in New Jersey in 1934 and attended Rutgers University, receiving a B.S. in agricultural science in 1955. He earned an M.S. in agricultural economics from the University of Maryland in 1959 and an M.P.A. from Harvard University in 1962. He worked as adviser on foreign agricultural policy for the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, served as administrator of the International Agricultural Development Service, and helped establish the Overseas Development Council. In 1974, Brown founded the Worldwatch Institute, a private, nonprofit, environmental think tank designed to act as a global early warning system and to study overpopulation, famine, and other world problems. Located in Washington, D.C., the institute publishes the Worldwatch Papers series, Worldwatch Magazine, and the annual State of the World report. Although sometimes criticized for his emphasis on population control, this author of more than a dozen books and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship has been highly praised for his understanding of the threats to the ecology of our planet.

Preface

Food: The Weak Link

The Ecology of Population Growth

Moving Up the Food Chain

Food or Fuel?

Eroding Soils Darkening Our Future

Peak Water and Food Scarcity

Grain Yields Starting to Plateau

Rising Temperatures, Rising Food Prices

China and the Soybean Challenge

The Global Land Rush

Can We Prevent a Food Breakdown?

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Permission for reprinting or excerpting portions of the manuscript can be obtained from Reah Janise Kauffman at Earth Policy Institute. For full citations, data, and additional information on the topics discussed in this book, see www.earth-policy.org.

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